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Many an oldtime Smith admirer has felt that the Brown Derby was rapidly losing the common touch since his withdrawal from active politics, was growing reactionary and bad-tempered as the New Deal unfolded. Yet even these erstwhile friends had to admit that Al Smith retained his salty gift of phrase when he concluded his attack thus: "Some of my readers. may ask why others have not pointed out these dangers in the CWA program. The answer is very simple. No sane local official who has hung up an empty stocking over the municipal fireplace is going to shoot Santa Claus just before a hard Christmas."
Hardened to recurrent criticism of his Public Works Administration, Secretary Ickes picked up an obvious political club to strike back at Al Smith: "It is impossible to satisfy any man who is nourishing a grudge as the result of disappointed ambitions. Mr. Smith is permitting his resentment against the Administration to run away with his judgment. He is apparently under the illusion that the coining of sarcastic phrases and the hurling of epithets will be misunderstood by sober-minded citizens for sound reasoning. The Civil Works Administration was a logical development of the public works program. It was designed to take up the slack in employment that the Public Works Administration could not hope to reach."
Declared Civil Works Administrator Hopkins: "If putting 4,000,000 men to work puts me in the grapefruit business, I'm delighted to be in it. I learned the word baloney from Al and I suppose the term 'sour grapefruit juice' is his too."
* AgricuItural Adjustment Administration, Farm Credit Administration, Public Works Administration, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, National Recovery Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps or Commodity Credit Corp., Tennessee Valley Authority, Home Owners' Loan Corp., Reconstruction Finance Corp.